Man Down
by TB's LMC
Summary: Steve's been out of jail barely a month when the new Governor of Hawaii reassembles Five-O for a mission worthy of a SEAL team. Spoilers for a handful of episodes including the Season 1 finale. Rated for language.
1. Chapter 1

**Challenge from my Editor**: Write a _Hawaii Five-O_ story based on the fact that Navy SEALS never leave a man behind. And thank you to her (Samantha Winchester) for being my beta.

**Summary**: Steve's been out of jail barely a month when the new Governor of Hawaii reassembles Five-O for a mission worthy of a SEAL team. Spoilers for a handful of episodes including the Season 1 finale.

* * *

><p><strong>MAN DOWN<strong>

* * *

><p>"You haven't been to Kauai before, have you?" Steve asked, genuine curiosity burning in his eyes. Danny shook his head no as Steve marked a line of black at what Danny felt was a random spot on his face with a camo stick.<p>

"I still can't believe you managed to convince me to go with face paint," Danny mumbled, trying to keep his face as still as possible. Steve grinned, completely at odds with his deadly-looking exterior. "It's ridiculous how in-your-element you are."

"You like the streets, I like..." Steve made another line that crossed the cleft of Danny's chin, "this." Steve leaned back, cocking his head from side to side as he studied Danny's face.

"Great, the Rambo Picasso."

Kono laughed out loud next to him. "You look great, Other Boss," she said, nudging him with her elbow. "But I still think Chin looks the best."

Danny and Steve quirked eyebrows across the way where Chin sat looking like he'd rather be sitting on a beach in one of his colorful, loose shirts than the camo green pants, shirt, jacket, TAC vest and black boots he was currently sporting.

They were all dressed the same, the chop-chop of the helicopter blades nearly drowning out their conversation. Chin grimaced and Danny chuckled. "Hey," he said, sparing his friend a rueful look, "I've never played G.I. Joe dress-up before, either."

"It's a good look on you," Steve said, and Danny rolled his eyes.

"All right, team," Steve said, stowing the camo stick in one of his many pants pockets and turning to the twelve by seven map on the floor of the chopper. Chin, Kono and Danny crouched or knelt at three sides with Steve at the fourth. "We'll be landing here at Port Allen," he explained, though they'd gone over the plan five times already in the last ten hours.

"We'll go five point three miles along Kaumualii Highway until we reach the second cane field here, to the north," Steve continued, jabbing his finger at a rectangular area. "From there we just have to get through about two miles of fields before we'll hit the rougher terrain, and I'm expecting Senna will have a couple men on the south side of the jungle but we can take 'em easy."

"Sure, that's what you always say," Danny remarked, carefully keeping the sarcasm out of it.

"We're coming up through this small canyon here," Chin continued, "parallel with Power Line Road, then cutting northeast 'til we're about half a mile from Alexander Reservoir."

"That's where intel says he has to be holding the twins," Kono nodded, eyes glued to the brownish irregular circle on the map.

"I've got the papooses," Danny said, patting the backpack at his feet.

Chin looked across at Danny and smiled. "I can tell you're a father."

"Well, you can't carry two infants through the jungle in the midst of what is sure to be a spectacularly bad firefight without anything to carry them in!"

Kono clapped a hand to his shoulder and Danny wondered for a moment when exactly it was she'd become 'one of the guys' but thanking the Fates nonetheless that she had. Sexy and deadly beautiful or not, she was probably more capable than half of Steve's old SEAL buddies.

Five more minutes of going over the plan in minute detail and then Steve rolled up the map and stuck it in the netting at the base of the bench to his right. He hauled himself up onto it next to Chin, while Danny and Kono took up residence in the other bench. The co-pilot leaned back through the cockpit entry.

"ETA eight minutes!" he bellowed over the chopper's _whap-a-whap-a-whap_.

Steve gave him the thumbs-up and then sat stoically upright and closed his eyes. Danny watched him intently, knowing he was seeing the transformation of Steve. Sometimes childish, sometimes scary and always so _Steve_...the man who'd made it into the SEALs on his first try through BUD/s. The man who'd led, participated in and _was_ so many classified things that Danny was never going to be allowed to know.

He watched the laugh lines disappear, the minutia of civilian life all but ghosts now as the face became placid, hard as steel, determined. Jaw squaring, lips tightening into a thin line. Danny's eyes moved to Chin, who was leaning back against the bulkhead staring at his cousin. Looked at Kono next to him, her face set like it always had been when their team of four was headed into the fray. Danny wasn't quite sure what his own face said, but he hoped it wasn't showing too much of the rational concern roiling around in his gut right now.

* * *

><p><em>Four days earlier...<em>

The call came from the new governor not one month after Steve had been released from prison and the IA investigation into Kono's and Steve's activities surrounding the ten million dollars had been laid to rest. None of them knew at that point whether they would ever work together again until Governor Wood's aide had called the four of them individually and asked them to meet at the old Five-O bullpen.

Kono and Chin arrived together. Steve's truck pulled in just behind Danny's Camaro, and they shot each other an _I don't know either_ look as they hustled up the steps of the palace. Then they were in, Chin running the first two fingers of his right hand almost lovingly over the IT table that had stood unused for longer than it ever should have. The four of them exchanged looks of confusion, of barely-concealed hope, and of something else Danny couldn't quite name.

The tap of multiple pairs of shoes grew nearer, audible through the closed doors because nothing was powered up. The electric hum that had always been a soothing background noise was gone, leaving only the echo of times they had all spent there together in pain, in joy and in the surety that they were on the side of right.

The doors opened, one aide on either side of Wood. The men entered. Four pairs of eyes looked at Wood expectantly from where they leaned against their table.

"Gentlemen," he said, "and lady. Thank you for coming."

Danny could tell Steve wanted to say something, but admired the guy for biting his lip to keep from doing so.

Wood began to pace the length of the bullpen and slowly outlined for them why they were all there. The twin sons of Iowa Governor Dan Fraye and his wife, Libby, had been kidnapped from Kapi'olani Medical Center in Honolulu. The Frayes had come to Hawaii in spite of Libby's delicate condition, being seven-and-a-half months pregnant with the twins, for her mother's funeral. She'd gone into premature labor, but in spite of that the boys had been born healthy at around five pounds each, and were scheduled to be released the day after they were taken.

By some coincidence that made Kono and Chin share an amused look and forced Steve and Danny to scowl at each other for a good, long minute, the Frayes had named their sons according to their staunchly Methodist beliefs with Bible names, those being Daniel and Stephen. It obviously hadn't escaped Wood's notice either if the quick looks he gave the former partners as he said it was any indication.

The FBI had been working the case but had only gotten so far as to give a profile of the kidnapper, who hadn't yet made any contact after six whole days. And so now, Wood was doing the only thing he could think of, calling upon the only resource he believed would be able to succeed where the FBI had failed. He was reinstating Five-O, he said, and only temporarily, in order for them to find and save the twins, and return them to their frantic parents.

This would not happen on his soil, he made quite clear, and he was fully versed on the fact that this particular team, while very rarely sticking strictly to police procedure...and that had made Danny, of course, shoot his partner a look which Steve narrowed his eyes at...had a phenomenal success rate solving difficult cases and pulling off the impossible. This track record was not something Wood was willing to ignore in a situation this desperately serious.

And so they were back, and there was even more riding on this than the lives of two innocent newborns, as if that weren't impetus enough for the team to agree. Governor Wood made it crystal clear, in writing no less, that if Five-O were successful in bringing Daniel and Stephen back alive and unharmed to the Frayes, Five-O would become a permanent fixture, there for them as long as they were willing to carry its torch.

Fire burned in Steve's eyes. Hope shone from Kono's glistening ones. Chin's gleamed with pleasure and Danny didn't know what his own eyes said, exactly. But he was pretty sure it was nothing less than a combination of love for having his family back together, determination to succeed, hatred for the scumbag who'd taken the babies and the sudden urge to wrap himself in protective shell of titanium because Steve had just been given a free pass all over again.


	2. Chapter 2

Just like that, here they were in the chopper. Well, not just like that, Danny mentally corrected. Everything had been powered up, all their accesses to everything had been restored and they were under strict orders to keep it so under-the-radar that the FBI would never know about it until it was done and the baby boys were back safely.

Danny watched as Steve opened his eyes, and he was transfixed by the change in them. He'd seen them reflect so many emotions and even seen them completely blank, but this was a new look. He knew instinctively this persona before him was the first time he was really and truly seeing Steve McGarrett the SEAL and it sent a thrill up his spine because _this_ was the real Steve.

In fact, Danny noticed, both Chin and Kono were also seeing this new man in front of them for who he was and it was nothing short of frightening in its intensity. They were on a mission. They were still Five-O, and still under the Lieutenant Commander's leadership, but now they'd suddenly become his unit in the most military sense possible.

It unnerved Danny a little, because he had never been anything more than a cop. Neither had Chin or Kono, though, and he wondered if they had any doubts about their ability to keep up with whatever was in store for them. McGarrett was the Navy's best. Someone they never should have seen in this type of action, these civilian cop friends and teammates of his. Danny just knew that no matter what happened, after this mission he would never look at Steve the same way again.

"Three minutes!" the co-pilot hollered back.

Steve nodded once in acknowledgment and put his camouflage hat with the thin rim on his head. His team mirrored his action.

* * *

><p><em>Three days earlier...<em>

The first thing Chin and Kono had discovered after fifteen hours straight on the computers was that the Governor of Iowa didn't have a single enemy. And neither did his wife, nor any of their extended family, many of whom were also in Hawaii for Libby's mother's funeral. There was simply nothing to suggest it was anyone the Frayes knew, which then led Five-O to consider black market baby sales.

Eight more hours on that angle, and they couldn't connect any of those known groups to anywhere near Hawaii. They were frustrated. They were exhausted. And it made adrenaline pump through their veins that much hotter. This was what they lived for. This was what they knew, and they were doing it together again.

Nobody, to the best of Danny's knowledge, had asked Steve anything about the few months he'd spent in solitary before he'd been cleared. He'd spent very few hours at McGarrett's house himself in the month since his release, having had to deal with his own family crisis as a DNA test had confirmed the baby was Stan's and not Danny's. Which had brought Rachel and Grace back to Hawaii, where Stan had accepted them back with open arms, while Danny had silently thanked every god he could think of from every religion past and present known to man for allowing his daughter back to the place he'd finally started calling 'home.'

And then the team had been thrown back together, and after twenty-three hours were working like the well-oiled machine they had become before Wo Fat's seemingly successful attempt to get rid of the task force for good. They were fueled not only by the fact that two tiny infants' lives were at stake, but by the fact that if they did get permanently reinstated, it would be the ticket they'd need to end Wo Fat once and for all.

And while the cousins had been working their techno-magic, Steve and Danny had traipsed all over Oahu following up leads, talking to anyone and everyone either they or the cousins could turn up who might have a shred of information to tell them. And spying on the FBI. Danny found it amusing, even in the seriousness of the situation, because it appeared that he and Steve had more 'spy' in their pinky fingers than the Feds had in their whole bodies. And after the run-in Danny and Steve had had the previous year with the FBI thanks to Matt, it brought him more than a wee bit of glee to know that he and Steve were getting one over on the bastards.

It was during one of their hours-long stakeouts in a cargo van that Danny and Steve got the break they needed. Their listening gear picked up the conversation so clearly, and yet its contents were such a shock to them, that it took them several long moments of staring at one another incredulously to believe they'd heard it at all.

"_That still leaves us with the only obvious thing left,"_ had come from Agent Belzer.

"_That is not obvious, that's just plain lunatic,"_ argued his partner, Agent Tan.

"_Listen, we were told from the beginning that this might have something to do with Five-O. You're telling me it's a goddamn coincidence that these twin boys have the same name as those two assholes who used to run it?"_

Danny's eyes widened in mirror of Steve's.

"_What the hell good would it do anyone to kidnap newborns just because they have the names Stephen and Daniel?"_

"_Look, Tan, the point here is that it can't be a coincidence. I want the file on McGarrett's arrest and I want to know more about this Wo Fat character."_

Steve's face paled, Adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed hard.

"_Well, we've run out of every other sane lead,"_ Tan had said resignedly. _"I suppose it can't hurt, but I still don't see the point."_

Carefully removing the headphones he'd been wearing, Steve set them down on the counter before him and swallowed again, looking down at one of the computer screens but not really seeing it. "It's a trap," he finally said as Danny removed his own headphones.

"Yeah," Danny nodded in agreement. "Seems that way."

"They want us to come after them." Steve's eyes met his. "You and me. Wo Fat failed, and he wants to make us pay. He knew someone would tweak to the names eventually." Steve looked away and shook his head. "We should've known the names weren't a coincidence."

"You know," Danny said, rubbing his hands together and turning to face his partner, "this whole thing's been orchestrated just like it was the first time. And quite frankly, I'm sick and tired of being jerked around."

A slight frown creased Steve's brow. "I can't let two babies die, Danno," he said softly.

"No," Danny said. "And neither can I."

"I'll go in alone, strategic op," Steve said, rising to his feet, muscles tensing.

Danny let him pace for a bit before standing up and getting right in his path. "Like hell, partner. One of those kids has _my_ name, you know."

"Grace needs you," Steve countered, always ready to pull out the big guns if he thought his partner was being an idiot.

With a wry grin, Danny placed a hand palm-flat on Steve's chest, physically keeping him still. "So do you," he said, stopping Steve in his tracks. "You think I missed my flight to Jersey all those months ago for some other reason?"

He watched as a myriad of thoughts and emotions played themselves out on Steve's face until at last it settled upon one that wasn't altogether new, but more than just a little rare.

Their eyes met and in between the short, hurried bursts of breath that puffed in between them, they came to a silent understanding that ended with a small nod from Steve. "Then we go in together," he said resolutely.

Danny smiled.


	3. Chapter 3

The chopper landed not far from the edge of the northern-most tip of Port Allen's only runway. Danny was more than glad that Kono and Chin hadn't taken 'no' for an answer when they'd told Steve they were coming along for the ride. Because there was no one Danny trusted more than the three people he stood tightly with next to the small Army-green jeep waiting for them.

Kono's sniper rifle was slung over the top of her backpack along her shoulder. Chin's iPad2 was in his hand, already tracking their route for them. Danny felt the two Beretta M9s on either hip, and Steve checked his AR-15 assault rifle for readiness. Each of them nodded to assure their commander that they were ready, and not a word was spoken as Steve hopped into the driver's seat, with Danny riding shotgun, Kono behind him and Chin taking the fourth seat.

They drove without lights, which in their formerly normal circumstance would have given Danny ample reason to enlighten his partner on all the ways that could get them killed. They already knew the airport wasn't being watched, but aerial surveillance had promised that any further along than the just over five miles Steve intended to go could prove dangerous since Power Line Road was being heavily guarded by Senna's men. There was no reason to give them any sort of heads-up by using the Jeep's headlights.

Danny shook his head. That Wo Fat thought he could pull this off twice on them just tipped his hand as to the depth and breadth of his ego. And if there was something Danny had learned in all his years as a cop, it was that the bad guy's ego was _always_ his undoing. Sure, maybe this _was_ a trap for Danny and Steve and, by default, for Chin and Kono. Maybe every tidbit of information they'd uncovered, every scrap of conversation they'd overheard, had been purposely planted to bring these four people to one place where they could be silenced for good.

But as much as Fat seemed to know about the McGarrett family, and about Steve's record in particular, there was one thing that Danny doubted the bastard had any concept of. Something Danny himself had never even heard of until Meka had explained it to him. Wo Fat, Danny understood, didn't know sweet fuck-all about _ohana_. And Danny was convinced that would be the last mistake he would ever make.

The Jeep sputtered to a halt on the side of the road, silently rolling in neutral down a short incline to the edge of the cane field right where the dot on Chin's iPad was blinking. Steve locked the parking brake into place and the team disembarked, with Chin sliding the iPad into the open flap of his backpack held open by Kono, who then closed and buckled it.

Steve took the lead, AR-15 at the ready, followed by Danny with one M9 palmed in his right hand. Chin and Kono had their M9s in hand as well and in a low single-file run they disappeared into the night.

* * *

><p><em>One day earlier...<em>

"He didn't want to know what we were going to do or when," Steve said, halfway seating himself on the corner of Danny's desk.

"Plausible deniability," Danny said, leaning back in his chair and steepling his fingers. "If Wood doesn't know, the FBI can't find out."

Steve nodded. "And that's why we're doing it tomorrow night."

That got Danny's attention. "Tomorrow night? Why not tonight? The newborns, Steve."

"They won't kill them," Steve said. "They don't have what they want yet."

"Us."

"Exactly. And I need tonight to get my hands on some accessories."

Danny made a face, wondering just what precisely his partner had up his sleeve and then deciding it was probably better not to know until it had been placed into his hands to use. "What do you need from me?"

Steve half-smiled. "Something that you're in a unique position to know more about than I do."

"Oh, really?" Danny grinned. "Would that be my penchant for wanting you to follow protocol?"

Chuckling ,Steve shook his head. "No, something to carry infants in."

"Oh."

This time, Steve laughed out loud. "Well, you know what would work in this type of situation better than I do."

"Yep," Danny said, rubbing his hands together and rising to his feet, "because one of the things I always made sure to do with Grace when she was fresh out of the womb was trek through the jungles of New Jersey with her strapped to my body and guns blazing all around her."

"Come on, Danno, help me out here."

He grinned. "All right, all right, I'm on it. And then I'm going to see if Rachel will let me take Grace to dinner."

Danny knew Steve had heard the unspoken _in case it's the last time I get to see her_ at the end of that sentence. They held each other's eyes for a second before Steve said, "See you here at oh-eight-hundred tomorrow and we'll get the plan together."

"Oh-eight-hundred? Really?"

"Eight. AM." Steve had the good sense to look sheepish. "In the morning?"

"Oh-eight-hundred it is, Commander!" Danny said with a mock salute that got a broad grin out of his partner as he sidled past him and out of his office door.

* * *

><p>They hadn't encountered a single hostile as they'd made their way through all the fields. Now, however, they were nearing where the cultivated land ended and the jungle began, and Steve held up a hand to stop everyone in their tracks. He looked at Kono, who nodded as she slid her sniper bag off her shoulder and onto the ground. With no sound at all and more speed than Danny had ever seen from anyone, she got the rifle out, loaded and steadied in the crook of her arm. Steve gave her another look, and she was soon moving sideways through the nearly-ready-to-harvest cane field, followed closely by Chin.<p>

Steve's eyes met Danny's. He nodded and moved left of Steve's position directly opposite Kono and Chin's path. Danny knew as they all did that Five-O would be fanning out to four equidistant points along the edge of the field. Kono would stay hidden with the night vision sight on her rifle, reacting at a moment's notice should any hostile threaten her unit.

Chin, Danny and Steve would move forward in a low crouch, and as Danny replayed the plan in his mind, he heard the voice in his ear that told him it was time to move. Their ear buds were black and short-range, but the team was never supposed to be far enough apart that they'd need anything more powerful.

"Move," was the single command that spurred Danny forward. Every one of his senses was on alert. Steve was using night goggles but Danny and Chin weren't familiar enough with their use to be comfortable with them. So Danny used his hearing and his instincts to guide where he pointed his gun.

There was a muffled sound and then it was gone. "One down," Steve said.

A shot rang out and then a second one. "Got him," Kono reported. "Steve?"

"Check," Steve replied.

Danny forced his heartbeat to slow down, glad that they were far enough away from any roads for more bad guys to come to their friends' aid after hearing those shots. He felt a strange tingling sensation on the front left of his head and recognized his cop-senses going off. Danny swung his Beretta in that direction and flattened himself into the beginnings of the jungle undergrowth. There it was, a footstep. He stayed down, knowing if the enemy had infrared or night vision he was screwed. "Target," he whispered.

Suddenly from his right a flashlight came on and in the split second before that blinded him, Danny saw the man dressed all in black and fired. Steve ran up to the body as Danny got to his feet. While Steve checked the guy's pulse and shook his head no, Danny looked left and right and peered into the dense jungle canopy.

A movement from just behind Steve caught his eye and Danny took off in a hundred-yard sprint, tackling a man twice his size to the ground. Steve whirled as the enemy pushed himself to his feet and swung his arm wide, cuffing the edge of Danny's jaw, sending him reeling to the ground. Steve was behind the man a split second later and had broken his neck.

"Jesus," Danny breathed, and only partially because he'd just gotten knocked on as ass.

"Guys?" Chin's voice came through their ears.

"Two down," Steve reported without a flicker of emotion on his face as he switched off the flashlight.

Danny sensed Steve's hand out in front of him and only had a split second to wonder how he knew it was there when he couldn't see a damn thing. He reached out and grabbed it, allowing Steve to haul him to his feet. A quick squeeze from Steve's hand was answered by the same gesture from Danny, and that's how they each knew they were okay.

Crouching down, it took a few seconds of feeling the ground before Danny found his gun, made sure by touch that the safety was off. He heard Steve live in his left ear and through the earpiece in his right ear, saying, "Move."

That was their cue to enter the jungle in a four-abreast maneuver that kept them equidistant and plunging forward. Steve moved off to Danny's right as Danny stepped into the natural cover and made his way as quietly as he could.


	4. Chapter 4

_One day earlier..._

Danny didn't think he'd ever laughed so much in his life as he stood there in the bullpen trying to teach Chin, Kono and Steve how to wrap the Mobys over their shoulders, around their backs and around the infant. He explained the logic for choosing the wraps over more conventional child carriers due to the instability of the babies' necks and the need to completely bundle and secure them to their bodies.

None of them knew which two of them would wind up with the infants, nor how fast they'd need to get out of wherever it was they were rescuing them from, so using a couple of Grace's dolls, Danny made all three of them practice until they were securing those dolls to themselves in twenty seconds flat. He was so proud he applauded. Only Kono seemed happy to have the new skill, while Chin and Steve were more embarrassed than anything.

Next came the lesson about how to swaddle a newborn, a feat which Chin and Kono mastered quickly, but which Steve said didn't make a lot of sense. Of course, Danny observed, it didn't help that he kept trying to make military-grade corners out of the edges of the blanket before wrapping the doll in it. Finally the group had dissolved into something resembling hysteria, laughing so hard they had tears coming out of their eyes.

Once they'd finally calmed down, Steve shot Danny what he chose to interpret as a grateful look, because it was the first time, Danny knew, Steve had actually laughed since being arrested. Danny just winked at him, gathered the black wraps and soft light blue blankets and folded them, leaving them on the corner of his desk.

They'd ordered takeout from Boston Pizza at Danny's insistence, grudgingly agreeing that it even had good food for health nuts like Steve. Through the good-natured ribbing they worked together from eleven in the morning until four in the afternoon, when Steve decided to show them all the equipment he'd been able to get hold of. Danny decided it was best not to ask _how_.

And then it was forty-five minutes before sunset, and they were at Hickam Air Force Base, with an old friend of Steve's father getting them into the Huey that would take them to Kauai. They were already dressed in fatigues, and Steve had his face paint on. He did Kono's first once they were airborne, and then Chin's, before he approached Danny, who just couldn't keep his eyes from crinkling in a smile as Steve went to work.

* * *

><p>"We're there," came Steve's voice at last, just when Danny was about ready to move from taking-the-Lord's-name-in-vain-curses against his bum knee into the I-will-curse-all-your-ancestors-with-voodoo internal rant. He wasn't about to let that damn knee stop him, though, no matter how long he might be laid up in the aftermath, because there were <em>babies.<em>

And if Danny wanted to accuse Steve of having father-related issues, he knew he had to first acknowledge his own child-related issues and okay, he could go with that. Because none of them liked it when kids were involved, but _newborns_? Danny resolved to personally pull a McGarrett-neck-break manoeuvre on Wo Fat just for that alone.

The team stepped out of the jungle into a clearing, gathering in a semi-circle around Steve. In the moonlight Steve and Chin studied the northwest edge of the Alexander Reservoir. There was a small building there, roughly ten feet by twenty, and just as Chin was about to pull his iPad out to confirm that they were where intel had led them to go, a plaintive wail rang through the night. It startled a group of birds only a few feet from the small shack and Danny felt his blood run cold.

They'd found Stephen and Daniel Fraye, no mistake.

The perimeter of the reservoir was flat with no vegetation. Kono gauged the area nearest the shack where there was still jungle canopy about twenty feet back from it. She touched Steve's hand, pointed at the area, and waited for him to assess it with his goggles. He turned and nodded once, Kono responding in kind, and she was suddenly back into the jungle making her way toward the spot she wanted to be in.

Danny shucked off his backpack, opened it and handed a Moby wrap and blanket to Steve and then one each to Chin. Both men stuffed the tightly folded pieces of fabric inside their camo jackets as Danny did the same with his. He closed and latched the backpack and slung it back over his shoulders.

Chin opened his backpack while Danny was busy with his, and pulled out a pair of T7 thermal goggles. First he scanned the entirety of the jungle around them, then all the way along the perimeter until he spotted Kono, crouched and aiming at the shack. He gave a thumbs-up sign to let Danny and Steve know she was good, then continued on to the shack and made a clean sweep around until he was looking behind them.

"All clear," he said in a voice so low Danny wondered how it _didn't_ come out as a whisper.

Stuffing the goggles back into his pack, eyes having adjusted well enough to the darkness now that they could pretty well see every feature on each other's faces, Chin looked to Steve for direction. Danny waited as Steve signalled for Chin to move around the right edge of the shack, nearest their current position. Chin nodded and crouched low to wait for Danny and Steve to get into place.

Danny watched carefully, every muscle tensed, as Steve indicated he should move around to the left side of the shack furthest away, and then that he himself would take the reservoir side. Which, Danny thought in the snarky inner voice he was forcing to _remain_ inner, was only because Steve wanted to swim, he was quite sure. They waited until Steve had removed his boots and socks, jacket and tee shirt, and used his belt to tighten them into a small pack. The Moby and baby blanket were wrapped inside the jacket, and Danny sincerely hoped it wouldn't be Steve forced to wrap soaking wet cloth around a newborn boy.

"Move," Steve said quietly, and Kono tensed, aiming directly at the shack while Danny stayed along the jungle line to the far side of it and Chin inched closer to the nearer side. Steve skimmed along the undergrowth until he was close enough to the water to wade in from jungle cover. He held his clothing above his head, having left his boots and socks back at their rendezvous point.

Danny made it around to his spot and watched as Steve managed to keep his head, arms and clothing out of the water. He grinned to himself, acknowledging that he should've known Steve wouldn't get the baby items wet in spite of the fact that he had only his feet to propel him along.

Danny's was the side the door was on. The shack was elevated two feet off the ground, and Chin and Danny waited until Steve had crawled up underneath it, before moving slowly forward. Then the door slammed open and before Danny could even blink, something flew through the night. It landed somewhere in front of him as he squeezed off a shot.

Danny went down the moment the grenade exploded.

* * *

><p>Fighting his way back to the land of consciousness, he groaned, then remembered he was supposed to be keeping quiet. He heard an awful lot of noise, volleys of big-gun fire being exchanged and in amongst it all the familiar cries of babies. That brought him awake a lot quicker and he touched a hand to the side of his head as he attempted to sit up. But that wasn't happening as the world teetered and seemed to fall completely sideways.<p>

It took a few seconds for Danny to realize it was _him_ who'd fallen sideways and not the world. His hand felt wet and sticky and he steeled himself to actually feel along the left side of his skull above his ear. He hissed loudly, estimating it to be a four-inch graze to his head, probably from a bullet or maybe shrapnel. Struggling to keep himself calm, he slowly took stock of the rest of his body.

When he tried to take a deep breath, he knew instantly at least two ribs were broken, if not more. And then he realized he couldn't feel his legs. Swallowing hard, Danny tried like hell to lift his right leg and thought he was doing it, but a quick glance down at his lower extremities made him way too dizzy for words at the same time as he realized his leg hadn't moved an inch.

"Shit," he breathed.

"Danny!" came the tinny voice in his ear. "Danny, where _are_ you?"

"Can't move," Danny whispered fiercely. He tried lifting his head again.

"Location!" Steve barked into his ear.

He could hear bullets whizzing past him, patting into the leaves nearby and the trunks of the trees they hung from. So he was close to the canopy, or maybe he was in it? He couldn't tell, he simply could not get his vision to focus well enough to make out anything more than funny shadows. Then, as though someone had flipped a switch, the gunfire ceased.

The babies were still crying. That meant they were alive. Danny breathed a sigh of relief and smiled in spite of the pain that threatened to take him back down to darkness at any second. They'd won. They'd beaten Senna and maybe even Wo Fat. He was starting to feel like he had back when the sarin had gotten into his lungs, and struggled to keep his mind on something much more positive than a repeat performance.

He was just about ready to succumb to sweet sleep when Kono's voice broke in from right above him. "Here, here, _here_!"

"Danny!" Steve yelled as he and Chin skidded to a stop next to him.

"Number," Danny coughed, "of-" he gasped in pain, "that truck." He couldn't tell who had the infants, but pretty much figured Kono had at least one of them strapped to her from the direction of the sound.

Steve knelt down at Danny's head, shining his flashlight all over him from head to toe. "Injuries," he said breathlessly and a squall from his general direction told Danny he was carrying the other baby.

"Grazed...skull," Danny panted, willing his breathing to just calm down. "Ribs," he continued. "Can't feel..." He hitched a breath, desperately trying to keep from letting panic fill him. "Can't feel...my _legs_."

"No no no no," Steve said, voice sounding wrecked to Danny's ears. There was a bit of a scuffling sound and then the muted sobs of the baby he was sure Steve had been holding seemed to move further away. Suddenly Danny felt hands touching his head and he half-growled and half-hissed when those fingers touched the wound above his ear. "Danny! Dan, come on, stay with me. I'm getting you out of here."

"Can't...walk..." Danny said, and managed to reach up and take a firm hold of Steve's wrist. "Get the babies...go..."

"No fucking way," Steve replied, voice clipped. "Leave no man behind."

"Christ," Danny breathed, stifling the urge to cry out when Steve's fingertips skimmed across what must have been his busted ribs. His back arched in pain and that made it hurt even worse and this time he couldn't keep the cry of pain to himself.

"Boss, we're getting the twins out of here," Kono said. "You get Danny."

"Go!" Steve barked, and Danny heard Chin and Kono flee into the jungle.

"Fucking SEAL," Danny groused, sputtering and realizing that something wet had come out with those words. He squeezed his eyes closed. Blood from the mouth was not good. Not good, not good.

"Danny, the team brings their own out, _every time_," Steve said fiercely, and was that the sound of engines Danny could hear in the distance?

"Dead guys?" Danny whispered, wishing like hell Steve would just _go_.

"You are _not_ dead!" Steve whispered fiercely. "But yes, even dead guys."

Danny didn't know what the hell Steve was doing trying to move him when for all he knew it could make Danny's condition worse. But his head was being jostled and then his body was being worked over so he knew Steve was, indeed, moving him. Then he felt like someone was sticking a few thousand knives into his gut and opened his mouth to cry out. Instead, Steve's jacket sleeve was pressed to his lips and Danny yelled unintelligible sounds of agony into the fabric before finally succumbing to blessed oblivion.


	5. Chapter 5

The next time Danny woke up he felt cold and numb. He figured he must be in the hospital and wondered how the hell Steve had managed to get him out of the preserve, until he realized he couldn't possibly be in the hospital because he was soaking wet. And only his nose and mouth felt anything close to resembling air.

Fight or flight kicked in and he flailed around until he felt his body being manhandled from horizontal to vertical. A hand came over his mouth and a voice whispered in his ear, "Shh, it's Steve."

"Where...?" Danny tried, but gasped in pain.

"Shhh." Steve's breath was hot in his ear. "We're in the reservoir."

_In_ the reservoir? Danny's brain stuttered on that one for a moment until he was able to open his eyes and realize that everything from his neck down was definitely _in_ the reservoir. He could see a bit better now and realized they were somewhere near the middle of the body of water and slowly floating backwards.

"'S goin' on?" Danny slurred like his tongue was way too big for his mouth all of a sudden. He could feel Steve's arm around his shoulder, palm holding his tee shirt, and where had his jacket gone?

"Keep your mouth above water, just breathe," Steve whispered. "I'm getting you out of here."

That seemed odd to Danny, why they were swimming across the water rather than just going down Power Line Road? He realized he must've asked at least some part of the question aloud when Steve grunted and replied, "Wo Fat's there with two dozen men."

"Perfect odds for you," Danny managed to say with a groggy smile.

Steve's hand flexed over Danny's pectoral muscle and Danny leaned his head back against Steve's. His body was sending him confusing signals and he just couldn't get them to make sense in his brain. Some things seemed to hurt like hell, yet somehow he felt calm and like maybe he wasn't going to die after all. Half of him felt like giving Steve a piece of his mind for moving him when he didn't know the extent of his injuries. The other half of him was grateful as hell that he at least had a fighting chance not to leave Grace fatherless.

All Danny knew for sure in the midst of it all was that he was in the water with Steve towing him to safety rather than Steve off doing what he would normally have done, which was hit Wo Fat and his men with all ordnance available to him. He found himself wondering in a muzzy sort of way what had happened to Steve's vendetta.

* * *

><p>He must have drifted off again, because he awoke to bone-jarring movement that instantly had him gritting his teeth. A sharp pain shot from his head down to his tailbone. It took a few minutes for him to realize he was somehow strapped to Steve's back, and that Steve was doing a fairly swift jog along what appeared in the lightening sky to be a dirt road.<p>

Danny grunted and Steve turned his head slightly to where his partner's chin was resting on his left shoulder. "Hey," Steve puffed, before turning his eyes back to the road.

"Mmhhh," Danny countered, voice trembling in time to Steve's footfalls, but sure he'd gotten his point across.

He thought Steve huffed out a laugh.

"Road?"

"This isn't...a road...Danny," Steve puffed back. "A road...is two lanes...with asphalt."

Danny barked out a laugh at the memory, but instantly regretted it as it led to a coughing fit that made his entire body seize. More liquid splatter came out of his mouth.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, _Danno_!" Steve said, coming to a full stop and twisting his face around to look at Danny. "Come on, man, they'll be in for us soon, okay?"

"Shit," Danny breathed. "Mobied me!"

Steve barked out a laugh. "Yeah, actually, that's exactly what I did."

Danny's head was swimming. "To your _back_?"

"Well, you're short, but you're still a bit big to strap to my front."

There were a thousand things Danny thought of to say, but he just couldn't muster up the energy to get the words out.

"Come on, Danny, I _gave_ you that one," Steve said, shrugging the fabric from his right shoulder and turning quickly to catch Danny as he fell from Steve's body.

"Too easy," Danny mumbled as his partner laid him out flat on the dirt. He was vaguely aware that Steve's hands were roaming over his head and chest and then he felt nothing at all until Steve's face was right in his. "Ugh," Danny groaned.

"Stay with me, Danny, Evac is four minutes out."

"Wo Fat?"

Danny could see well enough through his blurred vision, as the sun popped just above the horizon, to tell Steve's face was set in a way Danny didn't like at all.

"He'll keep," was all Steve would say.

"You could've..." Danny coughed and this time for some reason the twist of pain in his torso wasn't quite as sharp. "...killed him."

"Couldn't risk it," Steve replied, smoothing a hand over Danny's hair.

"Odds too great?" Danny whispered, feeling suddenly like he was floating above himself.

"No, I could've taken them. But I wasn't about to gamble with you."

Steve's face bore the only once-before-seen Scared Shitless look, so Danny tried to smile. "Sweet talker," he whispered.

* * *

><p>When next he awoke, it was to find himself in an unfortunately all-too-familiar place. The hum of the monitors, the steady beep that told him his heart was still beating. He felt like shit, and as he finally got up the nerve to try and open his eyes, his left leg twitched. That was the moment he realized he could feel his legs again, and he groaned in relief.<p>

Then a concerned pair of eyes were in his line of sight and damn if Steve didn't look like he was wearing Boyhood Christmas Morning Face all of a sudden.

"Hi," Steve said, his voice a low rumble that seemed to vibrate through Danny's body. Every inch of which hurt like hell.

"Hi," Danny croaked.

He was treated to a rare Happy Steve smile, and then an ice chip was between his lips and he sucked at it greedily, barely registering that Steve's index finger and thumb kept popping into his mouth along with it.

At last the ice chip was thoroughly melted and Danny felt like his voice might actually cooperate. "Babies?" he asked.

"Danno," Steve exclaimed, laughter echoing inside his words, "we haven't even kissed yet!"

Danny managed to roll his eyes.

"They're fine, safe and sound with their parents," Steve grinned.

"Five-O?"

"We're back in business for good," Steve said proudly. "So hurry up and get better, huh?"

"Working on it," Danny sighed as Steve squeezed his hand.

There was silence as Steve lowered himself down to the chair he'd pulled up to the side of Danny's bed. Danny knew it wouldn't be long before the massive doses of painkillers he just _knew_ were dripping in that IV up there put him back under.

"No man left behind, huh?" he whispered.

"Not on my watch," Steve said, and Danny felt his partner squeeze his hand again as sleep tugged him back to its peaceful darkness.


End file.
